Fabien Melanson's Story

Fabien Melanson a 15 year Canadian Veteran and proud member of the Royal 22nd. regiment who served twice overseas in Bosnia 93 and Croatia 95, was posted in the Citadelle of Quebec from 90 to 2001, and Gagetown from 2001 to 2005.

In 2004, was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward because in December of that year he had reached whit's end and had tried while driving on his own land, to take his own life using CO2 and a bottle of JD. Fortunately he was involved in an accident, which most probably saved his life.

A bit of back ground in warranted here if for no other reason then to explain the conditions surrounding his decision and why he was upset enough to meet his maker. In 2004 Fabien was trying to make ends meet while he was renovating the ancestral home of his Grand Mother, where he grew up as a child. September of that year he noticed a slight change to his bank account so he called VAC and was reassured that his pension had indeed been deposited to his bank account. October and November things got worse because there were always money missing from his account. He called one again only to be told the same thing but when in December when there was still a huge chunk of pension money missing from his account and having nearly exhausted his credit cards, trying to make up for the shortfall of income and while on heavy doses of anti-depressants, he could no longer cope with the over burdening challenges of life and despair that came knocking on his door.

Depression, despair, thought of helplessness, and seeing no future, the thoughts of ending it all took over his life and would have ended it if not for the opportune however unplanned accident, otherwise like in many other cases of military personal with PTSD, we would have been reading his obituary instead of this story.

In January 2005 Mr. Melanson Called VAC once more and this time asked for the number of the Account that they were sending his pension to and after reaching the bank was told that they could and would not give him any information on that account because it was not his. When he informed VAC of this fact, they got his Missing money to him within 24 hours, but now he had no home to go back to because the renovations being done by contractors had stopped when he ran out of money but sadly not before they destroyed or rendered the house unliveable. He was now one of Canada’s Homeless Veterans or maybe better said House-less Veteran.

He told them, “I am still a refugee, with no place to live, my animals are alone, in the cold, I fear for them,” but the VAC’s answer to this was Opps, but not our problem and as usual in these cases because of liability and becoming more and more frequent, not even a “sorry.” Their only concerns was the money for the four months in question and not the physiological or personal damages the lack of it had done.

Fabien after being a loyal and patriotic soldier for Canada now finds himself ashamed of the feelings, he from time to time has, and what he would like to do to the people who allowed this to happen to him and sometimes collapses to the ground in tears because as he put it, “ They created a monster out of me, someone who had pride and loyalty for his country, and now I'm just rebelling and frustrated against my own country, which I fought for it's freedom, and now I must fight against it for my own freedom.”

He has since tried to get an interview with Greg Thompson when he was still Veterans affairs Minister and even offered to drive to Ottawa to meet him which was denied and further tried to get some help from a fellow soldier Romeo Dallaire, even sending him his military medals, which were returned telling him to send them to Ottawa where they would be burned.

And all this man wants is to have his home back in a liveable condition and a public apology.

Now I will admit that I do not know the complete story and to be honest I do not believe I need to know it. I understand that the incorrect account number may have been given to VAC by Fibien himself but when he called VAC with a complaint or inquiry of missing money in his account they knowing that he was a confirmed PTSD disabled veteran who was also on heavy doses of anti-depressants could have ~~~ no should have at least picked up the phone and checked with the bank to which they were sending the money if for no other reason then to assure themselves that they were in fact getting the pension monies to Mr. Melanson.

And even though I doubt it Fabien could be wrong about the dates and exact way things went down, he has an excuse. What is theirs? This isn’t a man who wants a hand out, this isn’t even a man who wants more money, all he wants is his life and liveable house back so that he and his pets can live in peace and so that he can have the time if it is at all possible to heal from the military memories that nobody should have to live through.


To Date Fabien is still a refugee in the homeland he fought for. And Sir that just isn’t or at least shouldn’t be the Canadian way.